Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"Maybe the bar was just too high."

Prince of Persia 2: Warrior Within

Last year's Prince of Persia – Sands of Time was probably one of the greatest games of all time. Unfortunately, the game never really hit the mainstream within a gaming market swamped with online gaming, RPGs, FPSs, and military stealth action games. Even though this game won many awards and acclaims, Ubisoft seemed determined to put this sequel on the map by adding and tweaking the original to market a different audience. But, was it the right move?

STORY: 9/10

Kind of hard to make a follow-up after the first, but they pulled it off. This time, you're trying to go back into time to stop the sands of time from ever being created. You do this by storming to the island of time, and repeatedly go back and forth in time to complete your task. Oh yeah, you're also being stalked by Dahra, the guardian of time that's a little ticked you've been altering the timeline. He won't stop until you're dead, your fate has been sealed.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

This series still sets the standards, and may even be better than the first if you can believe that. The backgrounds are soft and are textured to the very last detail. Everything is noticeable: from the little grains of sand that fall as you hang on a ledge, to the full dark detail of the mid-game bosses. The game hardly ever slows down when you face multiple enemies, which occurs often. The visuals in this game practically perfect and are the foundation to the game.

SOUND/MUSIC: 7/10

Eh…what happened? For some reason, Ubisoft decided to added “voices” to the enemies. Occasionally you'll hear the enemies screech “Alert the others!” or “Regroup!” during or before a fight, making it seemed like you have been detected….when stealth has nothing to do with game. If that's not bad enough, the voices are horrible with a slight hint of the bad guys in Halo. Secondly, something else possessed the sound team to add heavy metal music to 80% of the gameplay. Nothing reminds me more of the ancient days of yore than a constant loop of some riff from an electric guitar of from the ‘80s. Other than that, the normal voice acting was tolerable and overall sound effects of the fights and background mechanics are pretty good.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

You all know the expression “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” Just because there wasn't a lot of gory, head-lopping, throat-slashing, combo-mashing in the first one, didn't mean they needed to add it. My jaw almost dropped when I saw like 5 pages of combo lists. Like I said, the developers seem to market the “Devil May Cry” crowd than anything else, to include dual wielding weapons. Not only that, but you're constantly battling, even in the middle of puzzle rooms, which gets very irritating. Also, for a sequel, they hardly added any new traps. The spikes, spinning logs and saw blades are still there, but nothing else. They did add a few nice touches that made the game interesting. You can kick your second weapon off the ground, slide down curtains and even block and attack while on the ground. Finally, you now can travel back and forth in time which affects the stage and game outlook, is pretty sweet with the addition of mini-bosses was also a nice touch.

OVERALL: 9

This review may seem a little harsh, but when Sands of Time was near perfection, you'd expect nothing less in a sequel. Like I said before, it was marketed to the wrong crowd the wrong way. But, it may have worked and finally their game in more of a household name. But, for the original fans, you come up with just a little disappointment. Having said that, this is great game and is one of the best games of 2004, but fell in the shadow of Grand Theft Auto: Sand Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3. The gameplay good, the graphics are great and story is tight. One final note: this game is hard. I'm not lying. It's the only game I've played where after the first few stages, I had to go back and set the game's difficulty from normal to easy. It's hard for two reasons. The first is the fighting. You fight a lot, and you're going to die a lot. If practically yourself trying to dodge traps, pits, and swing from pole to pole with a bottomless pit beneath you, you're forced to fight between your breaks. So, when you finally relax, you just end up fighting again. The enemies become cheap and sometimes you're forced to ditch some of your favorite moves. Also, the save points and spread apart a little far sometimes, with no checkpoints. This can get frustrating after you accomplish the fore mentioned tasks and accidentally die. Overall this is great game, and a must buy for most gamers. But, I'd give a rent first just to see if you like the difficulty and the presentation.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/05